"Postsingular"

That -- WHEENK -- is the name of the "metanovel" one of the Postsingular characters busies herself creating during the course of the book. It's also a perfect poster word for describing this Rudy Rucker sci-fi extravaganza. This is one wheenkin' ride!

Early in the book, the autistic boy genius, Chu, corrects his joking biotech genius father about a BIG number: " 'Ten to the thirty-ninth is duodecillion' " he chides, " 'Not umptisquiddlyzillion." But umptisquiddlyzillion just about covers the nearly endless gush of ideas that Rucker looses in this novel. What most people wouldn't give to have that many inventive thoughts in ten lifetimes, and he nonchalantly dispenses them in one volume!

Think of Postsingular as "Jack and the Beanstock" on uppers (and downers). Ye olde fairy tale is updated with extrapolations about the latest theoretical physics (such as "branes") and trendy sci-fi speculations about how artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and virtual reality might revolutionize or even extinguish life as we know it.

The early chapters, entitled "Nant Day," "Orphid Night," and "Chu's Knot," originally appeared as short stories; and in the middle of Postsingular, the tensile strength of those early chapters slumps just a mite...even though it is filled with mind riffs by the vagrant (and randy) technogeeks who climb onstage beginning in Chapter 5. Then, however, the frantic dash for the finish gets the old adrenaline pumping as all the socially awkward heroes try to save earth from devouring nants!

You may be wondering about the sea creature on the cover. Rest assured you'll learn all about it when you jump into this trippin' mind squeeze! Go for it! Wheenck!

"The Hacker and the Ants"

Jerzy
Rugby spends his days hacking away in cyberspace, to aid the GoMotion
Corporation in its noble quest to bring truly intelligent robots into
existence. Then an electronic ant gets into the machinery, then more ants.

This book
is just plain fun. I love his poke at realtors and fashion designers!
Rucker says that having worked inside a Silicon Valley software
company heavily influenced this ''transreal" novel.

About the Author:

Rudy Rucker was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1946, where he grew up. In
1963 he went to Swarthmore College where he majored
in Mathematics. He then earned his Master's and Ph.D in Mathematics
at Rutgers University. In 1967 he married his college sweetheart, Sylvia,
and they soon had three children. His first job was at a State University
College in Geneseo, NY where he taught a series of classes on the fourth
dimension. From his notes, he published his first book called, Geometry,
Relativity and The Fourth Dimension. Soon after, he wrote his first
science fiction novel called Spacetime Donuts. Thus began is dual career
as mathematician and writer.

Rucker is a Math and Computer Science
Professor at San Jose State University and still publishing both
non-fiction and fiction.